Archive for the ‘Bløg’ Category

I am happy to announce that beginning next week (April 9th) I will be joining with de Jesus Architects as a Principal Architect and partner.

de Jesus Architects was founded in 2008 by Conrad de Jesus, AIA, LEED AP, and has earned a reputation of providing unmatched quality with a nimble and flexible business approach that has helped a wide variety of clients complete outstanding projects in the midst of a rapidly changing economic climate.

Together, Conrad and I have over three decades of combined architectural experience and will continue to provide a full range of architectural services including: Program Development, Feasibility Studies, As-Built Drawings, Design and Entitlement services, Construction Documentation, Contract Administration, Green Design, ADA Accessibility Compliance reviews, and 3d visualization. We can assist you through traditional, design/build, and integrated (IPD) project delivery.

As a principal architect I will be able to provide you with more personalized service tailored to your specific needs and challenges; regardless of the size of your project, your budget or your schedule.

Conrad and I are excited to enhance the service offerings of de Jesus Architects and build a twenty-first century architecture firm utilizing the latest in technology and cutting edge business practices. In addition to traditional compensation methods we offer a variety of payment and client/architect partnership options.

As we finalize the details of the partnership the firm will continue working under the same name. I look forward to working with you in this new role.

For the last week and a half I have been on a Social Media fast. If you’ve visited my Facebook page at all in the last week you would have been greeted with a page without the Facebook wall, no status updates, only a handful of profile pictures and very basic information. I deleted all of my pictures and notes from the last 6 years I’ve been using Facebook and I just stopped short of deleting my profile entirely. If you went to my Foursquare account you wouldn’t have seen any check-ins. If you follow me on Twitter you would have noticed an absence of tweets or retweets. Why did I leave and why am I coming back?

I’ve never lived alone. I’ve always had a family, roommate, or missionary companion. As such I’ve also enjoyed certain perks and luxuries. For example: silverware, dishes, and company on Sunday mornings. During the years I was married my ex and I accumulated all the essentials. We had every kitchen gadget imaginable and our refrigerator and pantry were well stocked. When we divorced I wanted to simplify my life and so I let her have everything. I took my clothes, a towel, our spare bed, my keyboard, guitar, and all my electronics. My thinking at the time was that I wanted everything I owned to fit in my truck.

For the first time in my thirty years on this planet I’m living on my own and can finally relate with some of the odd things my friend Peter has done for years.

My phone begins to ring, I lean over to see who’s calling, it’s my business partner calling from New York. It must be two o’clock in the morning for her. I hop out of bed, grab my phone and laptop and walk out onto the terrace overlooking the canals of Venice in Northern Italy.

Her excited voice comes over the line, “I can’t sleep, I have a great idea on how to improve the natural lighting scheme in the lobby and atrium!”

From my laptop I remotely connect to her computer and I watch as she goes over the design with me. We conference in our third partner in California and by 9am local time the design solution has been agreed upon. We forward our markups to the production team in India and by the end of the day we all receive an email saying the design renderings and animations are ready for final review.

For the last eight weeks the three of us have been able to dedicate all of our time to this design competition, it has been the highlight of our careers. For the last two months I have been living in Italy, enjoying the weather and gaining inspiration from the works of Carlo Scarpa scattered throughout the city.

If we win the competition we will be busy for the next two years in the production and construction of this building. If we don’t win we’re going to all move to Ecuador for the next year and volunteer our time with Architecture for Humanity.

This is the future of architecture. The framework for a distributed global project team isn’t new. Technologies like remote desktop software and high-speed internet connections allow project teams to work anywhere in the world.

What may be new to some is the idea that the Architect doesn’t need a mountain of paying clients to support themselves. How can my project team devote two months to work only on a design competition and then turn around and expect to continue to work for free for the next year? Did we just finish a string of highly profitable projects that have padded our bank accounts? Maybe, but we didn’t need the work. Did we win the lottery? No.

In this age of hyper-connectivity it’s much easier to shout out the good news on Twitter and Facebook than the bad. Sometimes in life we might actually physically mail something to our friends, a wedding and birth announcement, or maybe an invitation to a graduation. Unfortunately there really isn’t a good way to announce what I am about to say:

Crystal and I have been separated for quite some time and our divorce will be final later this year.

I had hoped to tell all of you individually or at most that you would learn about it on your own, but I’ve realized that both of those options are unrealistic. Neither Crystal nor I have made any public announcements but I feel it’s only fair to you that you find out sooner than later. I’m sorry you had to find out this way. Trust me, I wish the situation were different, but I really want to save you from making any more potentially embarrassing and awkward comments online. 🙂

Besides this one mention I won’t be talking any more about this and it’s not something I wish to discuss publicly. Please don’t comment on Facebook about this and don’tlike the link to this post! I realize that now that I’ve said this one of you will! 🙂 Private messages, emails, and gift baskets are always welcome.

Thank you for the love and support you have shown us both over the years. Crystal and I are taking separate paths in our lives and I realize that this may change the dynamic of the relationship I have with some of you. She and I are on relatively good terms given the circumstances and I wish her all the happiness life can offer.